Shimmer
by Lana Ves
Summary: lame title. CloTi. dream fic. ONESHOT. the pair run from a powerful enemy, and Cloud realizes his feelings for Tifa. his attempts to tell her are thwarted constantly, but they finally get their feelings out, but almost too late. bad sum, read anyway.


_**Hello everyone, this is Lana Ves (obviously). I was just throwing this out into the WWW because it needed to be done. For those of you reading my Saloria fic, worry not, I AM working on it! The next chapter just needs to be proofread and stuff. But yeah.**_

_**So this is a Final Fantasy VII fic between Cloud and Tifa, one of my favorite pairings. ;) Sadly, though, this one is depressing. Actually, it was a dream I had a while back, and while I was going through some of my old notebooks, I found this! I cried when I read it again. emo!!!!!!! But yeah… it'll be disjointed and kinda crazy because, well, it was a dream. I am a fan, but not very well versed in this FF world, so forgive me for not knowing the names of all the weapons and places and stuff. Sorry!!! But I hope you enjoy anyway! Thanks for reading, and review! Luv to all!**_

Cloud and Tifa crouched in a cramped warehouse room, Tifa at the window and Cloud at the door. They were hiding from pursuers. Someone had conjured up a powerful army that had ravaged the world. Cloud and Tifa were all that was left of the ground resistance in this region. The others of the gang, Cid, Yuffie, and Valentine were the air support, but they were on another mission in another region.

So far, they hadn't had any trouble, but the two would rather be safe than dead. Silence prevailed between them as they crouched tensely in their positions. The silence and relative safety was perfect for thinking, and Cloud was thinking really hard about his companion. Finally, the silence was too much even for Cloud.

"Tifa, i…" Cloud started, then he stopped speaking and hesitated for a long time. Tifa looked up from looking out the window and smiled, hoping her smile would give him courage. Cloud glanced up at Tifa and stood from his crouching position near the door, walked to her and took her cool, soft hands into his warm, dry ones. "Tifa, I know I wasn't always there for you. I deserted you a long time ago and… well, I'm sorry."

Tifa stared at her long-time crush. "There's nothing for you to apologize for." Tifa whispered once she recovered from her shock. "I forgave you a long time ago.

Cloud's face softened.

"Yeah, you're good like that." He murmured. The warrior opened his mouth as if to say something, and then shut it. He did it again, then finally, "Tifa..?" but the rest of his words were cut off as a tremendous crash resounded as the iron door to the house was hit with incredible force. Cloud paled and Tifa gulped.

"They're here." Tifa whispered, dread evident in her voice.

"But the door should hol—" Cloud was once again cut off as the door was blasted open. He rushed toward the door, pushing the intruders back out and slamming it shut. The warrior braced himself against the door, attempting to keep it closed, but the brute force from the other side was just too much and it blew open again.

"Tifa, RUN!" Cloud bellowed as he drew his sword and began to hack away at the black clad enemies. Tifa rushed at them, aiming deadly kicks at the heads of anyone that got near her. Cloud was too preoccupied to yell at Tifa for defying his orders. He desperately fought his way closer to her. There were so many, and who was the being that had hired them?!

"Tifa!" Cloud yelled as she looked up with a smile. Cloud returned it, but then something was thrown at Tifa and she was too preoccupied to see it coming. The object exploded and threw the martial artist through the air. She landed in a heap near the table on the other side of the room, unconscious. "TIFA!" Cloud screamed, panicked. He hurled himself toward her, killing anyone who got in his way. "Tifa, TIFA!" he cried upon reaching her. He picked her up and ran. Tifa was bruised and sooty, but otherwise fine, which relieved Cloud beyond measure.

Cloud ran as iff hell was on his heels, and in a way, it was. He reached his Fenrir, hidden under a tarp behind the warehouse and they zoomed off as soon as he had Tifa secured in front of him. They raced through town, the enemy always just behind them. It was almost as if they were herding him…

They reached the cliff where they were to rendezvous with Cid in a few hours. Cloud took out his cell after he took Tifa from the bike and carried her bridal style to the edge.

"CID!" Cloud yelled into the phone once the pilot answered. "Get here NOW!"

"I'm still half an hour from Midgar. How the HELL am I supposed to get there now?!"

"Cid, you have to! They found us. Tifa's out cold and there are just too many of them…" Cloud, yet again, was cut off as the phone was shot from his hand. Kadaj stood beside his cronies, smirking.

"Too late, big brother. You're already dead." The Sephiroth-wanna-be sneered, and the three separated to reveal the devil himself; Sephiroth.

"Cloud. How are you?" the monster hissed. Cloud backed away, horrified. Sephiroth was back?! "Why don't you give the girl to Kadaj and fight me?" Sephiroth suggested coldly. Cloud glared.

"They'll kill her." Cloud snarled. The three cronies snickered.

"Well, of course." Sephiroth purred. He drew his obscenely long sword (AN: again, cant remember it's name, sorr!!!). "Now, let's play."

Cloud dashed away and just managed to dodge a stab to his back. "Tifa, Tifa wake up!" he cried and his arm was cut. Gritting his teeth, Cloud jumped with all his might into the air.

"Cloud?" Tifa asked with a smile. Cloud returned it, relieved she'd woken up, but they both gasped as they were pierced through their chests by Sephiroth's sword. He didn't' stop there; he stabbed them repeatedly, Cloud getting the worst of it. The blonde warrior coughed up blood and with a gasp, released Tifa as his arms went numb.

"CLOUD!" TIfa screamed as she fell, reaching for him. He grabbed her hand as they pummeled toward the clear blue waters of the ocean, and with the last of his strength, he pulled her back to him, holding her tightly so she wouldn't fall away again. Cloud began to cry. Not from pain, nor from being beaten by Sephiroth, but because Tifa was going to die also. He could see the grievous wounds that marred her chest.

"Tifa…" Cloud murmured. Tifa touched his cheek with a trembling hand. "Tifa I—"

"Shh… we're together now. You saved me." She whispered. Cloud bit off a sob and felt the blood pour from him.

"Tifa, I love you." He whispered into her ear, and then they hit the water. They sank to the bottom, holding each other, trails of their blood leading up to the surface, the water cleansing them. Tifa kissed Cloud with the last of her strength and mouthed to him, "I love you too." And with that, the two died.

Light reflected down, waving across them with ancient patterns as the water danced with the sun. after a few moments, two lights joined and formed glowing replicas of the couple. They sat silently on the coral and looked sadly at their bodies on the sand below. Then they looked at each other's ghostly forms and smiled.

_Cloud…_

_Tifa…_

They drifted upward, hand in hand, to be embraced by the lights from the sky and joined friends lost in the past to wait for other friends to join them in the future when the time came. They were sad they lost to an evil man, they were sad that they died, but in the end, they were happy. They were happy because they were together. Finally together.

The End.

_**EMO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! so, when I had this dream, I was depressed for a week. For some reason, the scene of them looking down at their dead selves in the ocean, with the light/wave patterns shimmering off their ghost forms, was permanently ingrained in my mind, and I wanted to have a sob fest in a corner for a month. Now I can think of the scene calmly, but I had this dream very soon after my, er, "obsession" with FFVII came about, and I was having an emotional time and, well, no one cares about that, but in the end, this is what comes of my sadistic imagination; I kill my favorite people! WTF?!**_

_**But yeah. Hope you enjoyed! REVIEW FOR THE LOVE OF FANFICTION! XD**_


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